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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. xi. MAR. 27, 1915.

This expression is quite familiar to me as a native of, and dweller in, South- West Lan- cashire. I drew attention in ' N. & Q.' (US. viii. 68) to the term "fingerboard" in the Churchwardens' Accounts of Eccles- ton, Lancashire, in 1723. The "finger of the clock " is mentioned in the same place in 1717. " Fingerbord " also occurs in the Churchwardens' Accounts of Leigh, Lanes, in 1716, with the same meaning of clock- face (see 11 S. viii. 514). F. H. C.

The usage of this term is certainly not confined to Norfolk. It is (or was until recently) in common use in North Stafford- shire, where the minute hand was called the " big finger,' 5 and the hour hand the " little finger."' R. KECHOLLS.

BONINGTON: PICTURE OF GRAND CANAL, VENICE (11 S. xi. 88, 133). Bef erring to your correspondents" remarks regarding this picture, known as the ' Novar Boning- ton, : which is in my possession, I beg to state that, despite the heat having raised the varnish and the smoke having discoloured the surface,- the original pigments have proved to be intact ; and if either of your correspondents would care to see the picture, I should be happy to show it to them.

GEORGE WARRE.

47, Upper Grosvenor Street, W.

"CYDER CELLARS"' (11 S. xi. 208). The following extract from Mr. Matthias Levy's 'Western Synagogue/ 1897, at pp. 17-18, would seem to give the earliest date at which 21, Maiden Lane, was " now a Synagogue"' :

" Accordingly in 1821 they founded the Brewer Street Synagogue, near Golden Square, and sub- sequently built the edifice in Maiden Lane, Strand, which was consecrated on Friday, 17th April, 5589 (1829)."

A. T. W.

This once well-known " house of call," No. 20, Maiden Lane, formerly associated with the names of Chatterton and Person, was demolished in the year 1864. It had never been particularly respectable, and at the end of its career had degenerated into a kind of third-rate " Judge and Jury," so that it was no great loss. The house which succeeded it was, if I am not mistaken, opened as a g3'mnasium and fencing rooms. ALAN STEWART.

Mr. Beresford Chancellor in his ' Annals of thef Strand " states that this resort was demolished when the Adelphi Theatre, which backs on to Maiden Lane, was enlarged in 1858. WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

I should say that when Benjamin Webster- purchased the little Adelphi Theatre and rebuilt the house on a larger scale (1858 r Thomas H. W T yatt architect), the tavern called " The Cyder Cellars," No. 20, Maiden Lane, was then absorbed in the extensions.

TOM JONES.

SOUTH CAROLINA BEFORE 1776 (11 S. xL 168). In answer to B. C. S., I have by me three large maps of America dated 1719 1 which I shall be happy to show him. South Carolina is distinctly shown in each.

CLIFFORD C. WOOLLARD.

68, St. Michael's Road/Aldershot.

GERMAN SOLDIERS' AMULETS (11 S. xi.. 187). Anent the quotation from The Times r it may be worth recording in ' N. & Q." that in Poland a Jewish soldier wore his " arm. -phylacteries " during an engagement in which most of his comrades were shot down. He escaped without a scratch. There has been a demand for such amulets among non-Jewish combatants in conse- quence. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

WRIGHT OF ESSEX (US. xi. 189). Thomas Wright was bom at Tenbury, Worcester- shire, in 1810; see C. Roach Smith's ' Collec- tanea Antiqua,' vii. 245. A series of articles on the ' Historians of Essex ' appeared in The Essex Eeview, that upon Thomas Wright being in vol. ix. pp. 6576, from the pen of the late E. A. Fitch. This gives a good deal of information concerning him,, but probably more could be found in his grandfather's ' Autobiography of Thomas- Wright of Birkenshaw, 1736-97,' which Wright edited in 1864.

Some account of his ancestors is given in this Autobiography, but whether Mary Wright is mentioned or no I am unable to- say, as I have not a copy by me.

STEPHEN J. BARNS. Prating, Woodside Road, Woodford Wells.

Thomas Wright was born at Tenbury, on 23 April, 1810. His father's family had long been settled at Bradford, in Yorkshire, engaged in the manufacture of broadcloth. His grandfather Thomas Wright, who for many years occupied a substantial farm- house called Lower Blacup at Birkenshaw,. near Bradford, was a supporter of the Wes- leyan Methodists of the district. He wrote a satirical poem in defence of Arminianism entitled ' A Modern Familiar Religious Conversation ' (Leeds, 1778), and left in MS. a detailed autobiography reaching down to